Logan By Any Other Name
by wolverette
Summary: Jubilee learns of Logan's real name and background. Oneshot


**Disclaimer: **I do not own the X-Men *sigh* They are the property of Marvel Comics, but I just take them out and let them play every now and then!

Hi everybody! As far as I know, Wolvie never got the chance to tell Jubilee his real name and background history - o' course, I could be wrong, on account o' having two years worth of comics missing from my collection! (Filling in these gaps as fast as I can, guys!) Anyway, I think that occasion would have gone something like this .......

**Logan By Any Other Name ……**

"Wolvieeeee!"

Logan jerked at the shrill call, cracking the back of his head painfully on the hood of his recently acquired green Maserati. He straightened, wondering which hurt the most – his head, or his cruelly battered hearing.

"Wolvie, I can hear you bangin' around in here, so it's no use hiding!"

Hiding? From Jubilee? Logan shook his head at the irony of it. _No chance o' that._ She was like his own personal seeker missile, permanently attuned to his brainwaves. _I'd have better luck hidin' from a telepath._

"There y'are!" Jubilee popped into view between two of the mansion's black SUV's. "I've been looking, like, everywhere for ya, Wolvster. Whatchya doing?"

"What's it look like, kid?" Logan reached back under the car's hood, trying to regain the inner peace he always achieved when messing around with machines, yet realising he was fighting a losing battle. With Jubilee around, there was no chance of peace. Maybe he ought to quit now while he was ahead …… ?

Jubilee moved to his side, pushing her pink sunglasses back onto her head so that she could peer into the engine. "Eww, oily!" she declared, with distaste. Then, "Ooh, what's that?"

"What's what?" Logan turned to follow her pointing finger, only to see a head sized dent in the hood of his car. "Dammit!"

"You shoulda checked the car out for dents when you bought it, Wolvie." Jubilee retreated a few steps and regarded her partner wisely. "The guy you bought it from might have knocked a few bucks off if you'd known that was there."

Logan stifled a growl, pulling back from under the hood and folding his arms across his deeply muscled chest. "Look, Jubilee, whaddaya want? I'm busy here."

"Well, I thought we could chat some. Y'know. Shoot the breeze, as they say."

"Chat? What about?" Logan reached into his shirt pocket for a cigar and his lighter, then remembered where he was. Chuck wouldn't take too kindly to him smoking in the garage with all the gasoline around. He returned the lighter to his pocket, but retained the cigar, chomping it between his teeth as he waited for her to answer. "Well?"

Jubilee scuffed at the floor with the toe of her sneaker. "I thought we could talk about …… well …… you, actually."

"Me?"

"Yeah. Why not?" She hesitated a moment, then decided to go for it. "I heard you got your memory back. Is it true?"

Logan nodded, slowly. "Some," he admitted. He had intended telling Jubilee all about it, but somehow the time and place had never seemed quite right. Trust Jubilee to take that decision into her own hands. "Who told ya?"

"Jean."

Logan nodded again. He'd figured as much.

"So. James, huh?" Jubilee regarded him keenly, her blue eyes full of barely disguised curiosity.

"Yeah."

"As in Bond?"

"No. As in Howlett."

"Hey, that's kinda cool! Howlett …… Howl! Geddit?"

Logan cocked an eyebrow at her and Jubilee pouted. "Well, I thought it was funny," she grumped under her breath, knowing perfectly well that Logan's enhanced hearing could pick up every word. "Some folks have no sense o' humour."

Logan sighed and turned back to the car, popping out a spark plug and wiping it over with a piece of old rag. Jubilee fell silent and he could almost forget she was there. Almost …… but not quite.

"Mrs Howlett. Jubilee Howlett." She paused, tapping a finger to her chin and feigning nonchalance. "Got a nice ring to it, don'tcha think?"

"What?" Now she'd really thrown him for a loop.

"Well, I might decide to marry ya one day, y'know? A girl's gotta know if the name of her beau goes well with her own."

Logan sighed and rolled his eyes. It was a well known fact that the thirteen year old was absolutely besotted with him. Up until now, she'd been content with being his unofficial partner. It seemed as though she'd now set her sights a little higher …… "Don't go plannin' my future for me, Jubilation. I'm not the kind o' guy ya can pin down."

"Oh, come on, you'll have to settle down an' raise a couple o' mini Howletts one day! Besides, I'm the only one who'll put up with ya when yer all growly, an' you know it!"

"I'm doomed," Logan deadpanned.

"Hey, d'you wanna run around in yellow spandex all your life? Get with the plot, dude!"

Logan snorted and developed a sudden overwhelming interest with the battery connectors. Jubilee wandered off to look through the window of Rogue's sportique, then trailed a hand wistfully along the shiny black paintwork of the mansion's Beamer.

"You're awfully quiet, Wolvie."

"Workin', remember?"

"I thought we were chatting?"

"You're chattin'. I'm workin'."

Jubilee huffed and moved to Logan's jeep, where she clambered into the driver's seat and sat for a moment, absently rotating the steering wheel from side to side. She finally fixed her companion with a steady gaze.

"So how old are you? Really?" she asked.

Logan considered a moment. "Not really sure," he finally admitted. "But I was born somewhere in the late 1800's"

Jubilee's mouth dropped open. "You're kiddin', right? That's _old_, Wolvie! I mean, you're at least ……" Fingers jerked as she did some rapid mental arithmetic, not Jubilee's strong suit. "Geez, you're older than the Professor!"

Logan couldn't help grinning. "You bet."

"But you don't look a day over thirty five!"

"That's what a healin' factor will do fer ya, Jubes."

"I have got to get me one o' those!"

"Good luck with that." Logan reached back into the engine and began tinkering with the fan belt.

Jubilee dropped her sunglasses back onto her nose and blew a large pink bubble with her gum. "Did you have any brothers?"

"One. I think."

"Sisters?"

"Nope." Yet as he said this, a sudden vision flashed before his eyes, of a pretty girl with red hair. Jean, he thought, but he knew instantly this was not so. Disoriented, he swayed slightly, catching himself with his right hand against the bulk of the car. The claws in his left hand suddenly unsheathed, as he momentarily lost control.

Jubilee was at his side in an instant, her arm around his waist, steadying him. "Wolvie? Are you okay?"

Logan nodded slowly, as the dizziness crept away. "M'fine, Jubilee. Just got a bit unsteady there, fer a moment." The claws in his left hand slid slowly back into their housings.

Jubilee stood back slightly and eyed him, critically. "You might want to consider going easy on the booze every now an' then, y'know? I swear yer blood must be ninety per cent alcohol."

"It's not the alcohol, Jubes. I had a sudden memory flash of …… someone."

"Who?"

"I don't know. A girl."

"Someone in your family?"

"I don't know."

"What did she look like?"

"Young. Pretty. Red hair."

Jubilee snorted. "It's just Jean!"

"No, it isn't, Jubilee." Logan frowned, uncertainly. "Why do flowers keep coming to mind?"

Jubilee smiled, sweetly. "Perhaps because you want to buy me some?" She pushed her glasses back once more and waggled her eyebrows at him.

"No, that's not it," said Logan, absently. He mentally reached further into his mind, striving to recapture the image of the girl and what it meant to him, but it had gone, momentarily lost behind the buffers his mind had put up to protect him all those years ago.

"Do you think she's still alive?"

"Who?"

"The girl, ya big lump! The one you've been talking about!"

"Oh. No, I doubt it, Jubilee. I think she died a long time ago."

Logan picked up a wrench and ducked back under the hood. Knowing her partner as well as she did, Jubilee recognised a dismissal when she saw one. Conversation over. She'd get nothing more out of him on this particular subject, at least not until he had mulled it over in his mind some. Whoever the girl was, she must have been important to have him reeling like that. Maybe if she gave him some peace and quiet it would help him to remember …… ?

"Wolvie?" She received a grunt in reply. "I'm gonna go and make a sandwich. Want one?"

"No thanks, Jubes."

"A beer then?"

"Maybe later."

"'kay. See you later, then."

With a last backwards glance, Jubilee turned and made her way through the cars to the door that would lead back into the mansion proper. She had almost reached it when she stopped in her tracks. No. She couldn't leave yet. Not without knowing the answer to one last important question. The answer she had come here for ……

She turned and backtracked her way through the vehicles to Logan's Maserati. He was exactly as she had left him, leaning into the engine, tinkering with something unidentifiable – to her anyway. His eyes had a vacant look to them, as though he was deep in thought. _Probably still musing about the girl,_ she thought. She hated to interrupt him once more, but she really had to know ……

"Wolvie?"

"What, Jubilee? I thought ya were goin' to make a sandwich?"

"I was …… well, I still am, but I need to know something first, okay?"

"Shoot."

"Well, it's just …… Are you …… ?" She bounced her foot off a nearby tyre. Why was this so hard to say?

"Come on, Jubes, out with it." Logan moved back from the hood, dashing a hand across his eyes and leaving a smudge of oil on his nose. "I haven't got all day."

"Are you …… ?" Jubilee took a deep breath. "Wolvie, are you going to change your name to James now?"

Logan frowned and shook his head. "No, I'm not. Why would I do that?"

Jubilee looked down at the garage floor, suddenly finding the pattern in the tiles fascinating. "Well, it's your name, isn't it? You don't need to call yourself Logan any more."

"It's been good enough all these years, Jubilee, I don't see any reason ta change it now. Be mighty confusin', don't ya think?" He stopped, suddenly sensing that his name wasn't the only thing on the young mutant's mind. He tilted his head and regarded her quizzically. "There's somethin' ya ain't tellin' me, Jubes. Out with it."

Jubilee sighed and looked up at him, a single fat tear rolling down her cheek. "I was talking to Bobby this morning ……"

Logan tsked. _I shoulda known._ "Go on."

"Well, he said …… he said …… now that you know your name and who your family are, you haven't got a reason to stay here anymore. He said you're gonna take off and search out your decendents." She bit her lip to stop it trembling. "Is this true, Wolvie? Are you gonna leave us?"

Logan's breath caught in his throat as tears began to roll freely down the young girl's face. "Aw, heck, darlin', o' course I ain't gonna leave." He dropped to one knee on the tiled floor and held out his arms. "C'mere."

With a sob, Jubilee rushed into his arms, flinging her own arms around his neck and sobbing into his shoulder. Logan hugged her close, whispering soothing words into her ear and stroking her back. "C'mon now, Jubilee, quit yer cryin'. I ain't gonna leave ya."

"You're not?" Jubilee sniffled, and pulled back slightly, leaving a damp patch on the feral mutant's shirt.

"No, an' if I ever get hold of Bobby Drake I'll kill him fer tellin' ya a pack o' lies. My family are long dead, Jubes, an' if there are any decendents, d'ya think they'd want me waltzin' inta their lives? A feral with a history o' pain an' hurtin'? I'm not the kind o' man decent folks would admit ta havin' a kinship with."

"Don't say that about yourself, Wolvie. You're the most decent man I know." Jubilee cupped a hand to his cheek and Logan covered it with his own.

"I'm just tryin' ta make ya understand, Jubilee. My family …… don't mean anythin' ta me anymore. I can't remember them. My real family – the people who have always been there when I needed them, the people who love me – Well, they're here, Jubilee. At this mansion. An' I've no reason to leave them."

"Oh, Wolvie!" Jubilee flung her arms around his neck again, squeezing tight and crying again, but this time tears of joy. "I love you so much!"

"I love ya too, kid." Logan prized her arms off his neck before they reached adamantium crushing intensity. He set her on her feet, facing away from him, and gave her a little push. "Go get yer sandwich. An' bring me back a beer."

Jubilee giggled and pressed a kiss to his cheek, before scampering off.

"Hey, Jubes?"

She stopped just beyond Rogue's sportique and looked back. "Yeah?"

"Don't go messin' around with that Drake guy. Remember yer an engaged woman now."

Logan winced at Jubilee's delighted squeal and shook his head as she dashed off. She wasn't stupid – she knew it wasn't a serious proposal – but it would be all round the mansion by lunch time. He'd probably just let himself in for some serious rib-taking.

But it was worth it – just to see the look on her face.

Sometimes you had to make sacrifices for those you loved.


End file.
